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SymbOS v3 released

Oct 072017

Prodatron finally released version 3.0 of his multi-platform operating system SymbOS that is available for Amstrad CPC, MSX, PCW / Joyce and (new) the Enterprise. I won’t bore you with all the details of this release, because the Changelist is huuuuuuuge, so read it by yourself ;-). But there are some neat features like ZIP / GZ decompression and new applications e.g. for Telnet or IRC. If you have one of those computers, you definitivly should check the new version and we CPC users can enjoy the network stack and more supported hardware with this release.

You can download the latest version from the SymbOS homepage and discuss it in the CPCWiki forums.

YANCC – Yet Another Norton Command Clone

Amstrad CPC, System, Utility No Responses »

Dec 312016

SOS released a very useful utility for all users of ACMEDOS called YANCC (Yet Another Norton Command Clone). With YANCC you can manage the files, which you have stored on your XMASS or Symbiface II IDE drives and of course you can easily copy them between your floppy disk. Obviously the GUI is similar to the old DOS program “Norton Commander”, hence the name of the utility. If you want to use it, be sure to compare the version number of ACMEDOS with the one that YANCC supports.
You can download the latest version of this utility from the CPCWiki forums.

SymbOS 3.0 RC1 – featuring widgets

Amstrad CPC, System No Responses »

Nov 182016

Prodatron released a release candidate of his SymbOS system for the Amstrad CPC. After the network support, which was introduced in the last WIP version of SymbOS, the new version contains some bugfixes and support for widgets, which are little applications that can be placed directly inside the SymbOS desktop area. Like widgets for mobile phones they e.g. may show the time and date or the actual weather information. In the RC1, Prodatron currently provides a clock and CPU meter widget and a preview version of a weather widget.
The SymbOS ZIP archive also contains pre-installation files for the M4Board (Amstrad WiFi) and SYMBiFACE II compatible IDE interfaces now, so you can just copy them to the respective device and use SymbOS out of the box.

You can download and discuss the SymbOS 3.0 RC1 on the CPCWiki forums.

Changelog

fixed bug in the widget management of the extended desktop; the widget feature can now fully used as well
no FDC access during the startup phase; increased booting speed

SymbOS 3.0 WIP – with WiFi and USB mouse support

Amstrad CPC, System No Responses »

Oct 122016

Prodatron released a new work in progress (WIP) version of his SymbOS, which is a multi-tasking cross-platform operating system for Zilog Z80 based computers like the Amstrad CPC, the Amstrad PCW or the MSX machines. This time, it contains the long awaited network support for the Amstrad CPC (well… there was no network hardware available for the last release) and also support for an USB mouse. To use those new features, you will need the Amstrad M4 Wifi expansion for the network support or the USB Albireo board.
On the software side, SymbOS comes with several network related programs, where the most important ones are an IRC chat client, which you can use to directly talk to other Amstrad CPC users on the #CPC channel at Freenode, and the telnet client. Prodatron also improved the SymbOS desktop. You can add unlimited start menu entries and desktop widgets to it now. To unpack your compressed ZIP files, you can use the new unzip tool in the SymShell console in the WIP, too.

If you want to test the latest WIP by yourself, you can download and discuss it on the CPCWiki forums.

Updates for FutureOS

Amstrad CPC, System 3 Responses »

Sep 192016

TFM just released a new version of FutureOS and some other tools and applications. There is a huge changelog, so have a look at it by yourself. You can download the latest software from the FutureOS homepage.

Changelog:

6128 Plus version: ROM D optimized.
Bugfix in |FDESK command
Extra E-RAM of X-MEM (64 KB internal) can be used now (640 KB! Not 576KB) with X-MEM via &7EC4-7
MultiPlay support added
Installer updated
Bug in OS function GET_DIR corrected
ROM applications can now be called using the RUN icon
FutureOS eXpansion ROM Mangement enhanced
API expanded: External ROMs can now call OS functions directly from Exp.ROM to FutureOS ROMs A-D
Albireo detection added (scans for both main chips)
Time and Date can now be shown optional as characters at bottom of screen instead of icons (nice in SPARtan mode imho)
Hotkey “B” / Fire 2 (not 0 or 1!) added: Moves mouse arrow to next file, but without tagging (problems with Plus)
Switch SPARtan mode on by default
The “Show picture” function now starts in MODE 0 and 80 x 25 character mode
Hotkey “J” added to Jump to file section in Desktop
OS/API entry KLICK will now reset SP to &BFF8, stability improved
ROM C compacted
Efficient PlayCity autodetection added
Documentation updated: printer management, E-RAM management

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